Florian Znaniecki (1882–1958) was a Polish philosopher and sociologist who worked in Poland and the United States. Over the course of his career, he moved his focus from philosophy to sociology and is considered a major figure in the history of the latter field of study in both countries. He established the first Polish department of sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he worked from 1920 to 1939. His career in America begun in 1917 at the University of Chicago and continued at Columbia University and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Znaniecki won international renown as co-author, with William I. Thomas, of the study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, which is considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology. He also made major contributions to sociological theory, introducing such terms as "humanistic coefficient" and "culturalism". (Full article...)